Liverpool's title challenge suffers potentially fatal blow

 

It’s been coming. 

 

For several weeks now, Liverpool have been scraping results, conceding sloppy goals, coming from behind, scoring in the last minute, drawing when they should be winning. 

 

But it was still a surprise that their title aspirations came crashing down tonight against a depleted and tired Leicester City side, who Liverpool defeated in deflating circumstances for the Foxes in the Carabao Cup last week (Leicester losing a 2-0 and then a 3-1 lead before succumbing on penalties) and were then hammered by Manchester City 6-3 two days ago, while Liverpool got what Jurgen Klopp has been demanding ever since he came to English football – a break over Christmas, after Liverpool’s game against Leeds United was postponed because the Yorkshire side were unable to field a team due to Covid.

 

Indeed, it’s always been a myth that rested teams play better than teams which have had a hectic schedule. Rest, the loss of momentum, boredom, can often hurt a side more than help them. 

 

How many times has a professional footballer said he prefers playing to training and, it’s hard to recall a single instance during Klopp’s time at Liverpool where his side have come back from a long layoff and hit the ground running. 

 

If anything, Liverpool have lost form and crucial matches when they have been away from a competitive match for too long. 

 

Liverpool dominated play in the first half and should have gone one up after 17 minutes when Mo Salah was tripped in the area and a penalty was awarded. 

 

Having defeated Leicester last week in a penalty shootout, it seemed inevitable that karma would intervene and put a curse on the Egyptian, whose weak penalty was saved by Kasper Schmeichel, the follow up header from the stretching Salah hitting the bar.

 

These misses from Salah were as close as he came to scoring all evening, but his lacklustre display was no worse than Diogo Jota’s or Sadio Mané’s who had one of his worst displays in a Red shirt, poor passing, awful touch, while, in the second half, when he found himself through on goal, blasting the ball over the bar when any kind of decent and composed finish would’ve resulted in Liverpool taking the lead.

 

Without having created a single chance in the game, Brendan Rodgers on 55 minutes brought on Ademola Lookman to trouble Trent Alexander Arnold and within five minutes, the former Everton winger had seen off the hapless Liverpool right back, advanced to the box where Joel Matip put in a weak challenge, Virgil van Dijk backed off, before lashing the ball and beating Alisson Becker at his near post.

 

Liverpool still had more than half an hour to get back into the game and save their tilt at the title but never looked like doing so. 

 

Despite an exhausted Leicester side, Liverpool failed to create any clear chances and the substitutions – Naby Keita on for Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, James Milner on for Fabinho and Roberto Firmino replacing Jordan Henderson   – had no impact on the game.

 

With half the season now over, Manchester City are six points clear of Liverpool and Chelsea, who the Reds  play next. 

 

If Liverpool lose at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and if Manchester City win at Brentford tomorrow and at Arsenal on Saturday the Reds will be 12 points behind the title holders, an impossible gap to make up.

Trent rocket secures tricky win over Magpies

The scoreline of 3-1 suggests an easy victory for Liverpool against lowly and, despite their Saudi billions and new manager (Eddie Howe), seemingly relegation doomed Newcastle United.

However, this was another nervy and frustrating game for the Reds, following similarly anxious and close matches against Wolves and Aston Villa, both of which were won but only by the narrowest of margins.

Indeed, failure to win against a basement club at Anfield after main title contenders Manchester City had, the night before, battered Leeds 7-0 to open a four point gap against Liverpool would have dealt a mental blow to the Reds, especially since Chelsea, another championship challenger, have been dropping points of late, most recently at Stamford Bridge to struggling Everton, which the West London club only managed a 1-1 draw against.

Things got off to a bad start  for Liverpool before kick off when it was confirmed that three of their players – Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones – had all tested positive for Covid and would now be isolating. Van Dijk and Fabinho would certainly have started against the Magpies. In for them came Alex Oxlade Chamberlain in midfield and Ibrahima Konate at centre back.

Liverpool suffered another shock when ex-Red Jonjo Shelvey, after seven minutes, latched onto a weak clearance from Thiago Alcantara, who actually had time and space to control the ball in the Reds area where he was defending and pick a pass, and took advantage of Jordan Henderson’s half-hearted effort to close him down to place a clever curling strike into the corner of Alisson Becker’s net, the Brazilian keeper perhaps at fault for not anticipating the trajectory of the ball and getting wrong-footed.

Even though the goal was conceded early, Liverpool’s response was rushed if not panicky and Reds fans could’ve been forgiven for thinking it was going to be one of those nights where things just don’t go for you.

Anxieties were eased, however, on 21 minutes when Diogo Jota slammed the ball home after his header was parried into his path by Magpies keeper Martin Dubravka, who perhaps should’ve done better with the initial effort.

Newcastle were aggrieved that the phase of play wasn’t stopped by referee Mike Dean, after Newcastle defenders had collided with each other trying to clear the initial cross, with Isaac Hayden ending up on the ground in the six yard area holding his head. There was no whistle and Liverpool couldn’t be blamed for playing on (and scoring) but Eddie Howe was furious that the attack wasn’t halted to allow treatment to his player.

It was a tricky situation. Hayden wasn’t badly hurt but the rule is that a head injury requires the immediate cessation of play. However, invariable application of that rule would mean that defenders could simply go down holding their heads to stop play and thwart an attack or the build up of pressure. Dean had to make a decision as to how seriously Hayden was hurt, whether there was an element of feigning his injury to get play stopped, and his conclusion to allow Liverpool’s attack to continue benefited the Reds.

Indeed, four minutes later, with Newcastle still reeling from the injustice, from their point of view, of the equaliser, a rancid back pass from Shelvey put Sadio Mané through one-on-one with Dubravka, whose save rebounded to Mo Salah who slammed the ball into the back of the net.

It should be added that between Liverpool’s first and second goals, Thiago was again guilty of sloppy play that allowed Alain Saint-Maximin through. His shot was well saved by Alisson down low, but it was concerning to see that these dangerous giveaways from Thiago, which blighted his early appearances with the Reds, haven’t been completely eradicated from his game.

While everyone expected Liverpool to add to the 2-1 scoreline and make the game safe, the team in fact created few chances. Newcastle grew in confidence and, from the 70th minute, an equaliser looked possible.

Roberto Firmino, returning from a six-week injury layoff, came on for Mo Salah – who looked disgruntled at being taken off – and his silky link up and layoff play reassured, and, indeed, it was his controlled pass to Trent Alexander Arnold on the edge of the Newcastle area after 87 minutes that allowed the Reds full-back to unleash a powerful, accurate, unstoppable shot into the top of the net and finally end Newcastle’s resistance and threat and put the game to bed.

Next up for Liverpool is a Sunday game away at Tottenham, who haven’t played their last two games because of a Covid outbreak at the North London club. It remains to be seen if the game can go ahead.

Reds manage nervy win against Steven Gerrard's dogged Aston Villa

For the second week in a row Liverpool managed a scrappy, nervy but ultimately deserved victory against dogged opposition who didn’t create much but thwarted the Reds for much of the game.

An appalling refereeing performance from Stuart Atwell in the first half – part of which involved him tolerating blatant time-wasting and slowing-the-game tactics from Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa – contributed to Liverpool’s frustrations as their methodical play was replaced by anxiety and rushing.

Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, who started ahead of the only-fit-enough-for-the-bench Diogo Jota, while last week’s goalscoring hero Divock Origi was out altogether with a minor knee problem, struggled in the false nine position.

However, it was Oxlade Chamberlain who came closest to scoring for the Reds with one of his trademark outside-the-area strikes that had Emi Martinez in the Villa goal beaten, but was two feet too high.

Apart from one a couple of half-hearted penalty shouts for fouls on Andy Robertson, this was pretty much all Liverpool managed in the first forty-five.

The second half was much of the same. Liverpool having an overwhelming amount of possession and creating enough chances to score, but lacking the decisive final pass or finish.

Just when it seemed we were going to be talking about a heroic defensive performance from the visitors with their captain Tyrone Mings seemingly getting his head on everything and launching himself into unlikely blocks, the Villa centre half on 67 minutes made a fatal mistake.

The ever industrious Mo Salah found himself with the ball just outside the Villa box. He drove towards the goal marshalled by Mings; but rather than let the Liverpool striker run down towards the line and out of room, the Villa defender panicked and decided to try and nick the ball away from Salah. He missed the ball, clipped the Reds forward, who went tumbling.

A penalty, a soft penalty, but a penalty just the same.

In basketball, such an infraction would be called a reach-in foul, and it’s one an experienced defender like Mings, who is deemed good enough to play for England, should not have made.

Once VAR had confirmed that Atwell had not made a clear and obvious error in awarding the spot kick – I doubt VAR would have overturned Atwell’s decision if he had initially gone the other way and not given a foul – Salah composed himself and, despite Martinez’ antics on the goal line, struck the ball perfectly, low into the corner of the goal beyond the keeper’s reach.

The last 20 minutes of the game involved Villa searching for the equaliser and they did so with much threat, particularly down their right with wing-back Matty Cash finding himself in one dangerous position after another.

Villa’s pressure should’ve paid off on 85 minutes, when a mix up at the back between Alisson Becker and Joel Matip ended with the ball breaking to substitute Danny Ings.

In attempting to swipe the ball away from the ex-Liverpool man, Becker looked as if he missed it altogether and caught the forward’s shin causing him to fall in the box.

If Atwell had awarded a penalty, no Liverpool fan could’ve argued against it, but the referee decided there was no infringement and VAR decided any error wasn’t so significant as to warrant the overturning of the decision. Villa will count themselves unlucky.

Still, Liverpool had chances to score on the break as Villa poured forward. Jota – having come on for Oxlade Chamberlain after an hour – wasting golden opportunities to put the game to bed and ease Liverpool nerves, which only calmed on the final whistle.